Erik is a baseball fan who has been attending baseball games and snagging baseballs regularly since 2008.

6-24-11 PNC Park

The Red Sox were in town, bringing their well traveled fan base into PNC Park.

I got to the park early, and waited at the gate until I saw the Pirates pitchers begin to take batting practice.
When it got underway, I headed down to the Riverwalk and searched through the weeds, just in case either team took early batting practice.
There was nothing. And no luck on the Riverwalk today.

When the gates opened, there were already seven people in the bleachers with guest passes, so the Easter Eggs were long gone.

In about the first minute of batting practice, I caught a home run on the fly in section 136. Here I am labeling it:
My second ball also came during the first five minutes, and it was a glove trick ball. After adjusting the band twice, I reeled it in.

The Pirates only hit until 5:06, which is a growing trend this year. They’ve been ending between 5:03-5:06 lately.

During the Boston Red Sox first group, which featured a bunch of lefties, I was able to snag an Adrian Gonzalez ground rules double in the left field corner.
It bounced into the first row in the aisle where I picked it up.
Then BP slowed way down.

There were intermittent rain showers:
And a lot of standing around, while Red Sox lefties took their cuts.
(We are confined to left field until 5:30)

At 5:30, I went over into center field. Can you find me in the picture below?
I narrowly missed catching a David Ortiz home run, but it was just over my head and landed a few rows back.

For the last group of Red Sox batters, I stood on the Clemente Wall in right field, where I caught a home run on the fly. I was checking the rooftops below the wall for baseballs (which occasionally there are. Its rare, but it happens), when I caught the track of a fly ball. I was just re-entering the seats, and ran to my left and made a snag on the move. I caught it in front of the guy in the black shirt:
Amy and I left right after batting practice.

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